The scene in the House Natural Resources Committee room was tense. The Subcommittee on Water and Power was holding a hearing on the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Clean Water Rule, but by the sound of things the subcommittee was preparing to stop a military coup. The rule was dubbed a “constitutional crisis” and the “biggest water grab in history.” Mercifully, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) cut through the hot air: “I think it is unfair to proceed with all of these worst-case scenarios and hyperboles.”

Clear away the rhetoric and howls of regulatory overreach and you will find a modest policy designed to address an important problem. In 1972 the Clean Water Act was passed with a sweeping mandate to clean our nation’s waters. It was born of a time where rivers like the Cuyahoga in Ohio were so polluted that they could actually catch fire. With such a visible threat looming, it was clear that most of our waters were far from what the act would have termed “fishable” or “swimmable.” Even later conservative administrations such as President Reagan’s supported the Act’s authority, allowing the Army Corps of Engineers to “regulate almost any body of water or wetland.” This authority allowed the EPA and Army Corps to comprehensively clean up water bodies, and to punish polluters who threatened to reverse any progress.

New Threat to Clean Water

Unfortunately, in two decisions, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC) (2001) and Rapanos v. United States (2006), the Supreme Court called into question decades of precedent and muddied the fundamental issue of what waters were actually covered by the Clean Water Act. Subsequent guidance by the Bush Administration went further, excluding many waters and placing unnecessary hurdles to guaranteeing protection for others. These cases have had serious consequences for our nation’s waters. Many cases of pollution in streams and wetlands have gone unpunished or have simply been abandoned, as they have failed to pass the confusing legal standard for protection.

A graph showing how streams and Wetlands are vital to downstream waters. Infographic courtesy of Natural Resources Defense Council.

Almost no one benefits from murky regulations, and many organizations have been calling for a new and definitive rulemaking for years. On March 25, 2014 the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers introduced a rule that promises much more clarity. The rule will definitively state what is protected, and what is not, by the Clean Water Act. All tributaries of traditionally navigable waters, and any waters within their floodplain will be covered, representing more about 60% of our nation’s stream miles, millions of acres of wetlands, and drinking water for 117 million Americans.

While clarity may be great for the fish, it is the last thing big polluters want. In spite of preserving literally every current exemption from the Clean Water Act and specifically excluding the construction of stock ponds and irrigation ditches, polluters and their allies in the House have reacted to this rule as if it were some drastic expansion of policy rather than a needed adjustment. They have attacked the rule in the press, at hearings, and have already tried to attach amendments to must-pass legislation that would kill it prematurely. We need to push back against this cloud of misinformation. Or maybe, as President Obama said recently, “we’ve got to dredge up that old tape of the Cuyahoga River on fire, and the Chicago River, and just remind people that this thing worked.”

That’s why we’re asking everyone who is on Twitter to join the Environmental Protection Agency’s Twitter chat on Tuesday May 13th from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern Time.

To follow the chat, go to the @EPAwater account on Twitter. You can participate by retweeting@EPAwater‘s tweets, asking questions about the proposal to protect wetlands and streams, or tweeting the supportive tweets below. By using the hashtag #protectcleanwater it will be clear where you stand!

It’s a critical time to show your support for proposal to restore Clean Water Act protections to small streams and wetlands, because the Environmental Protection Agency is coming under attack from polluters.

Retweet these Tweets!

You can share the tweets below to show your support for protections to small wetlands and streams that otters, fish, moose and many more wildlife depend on to make their river systems healthy and clean.

55% of our stream + river miles are in “poor” condition. Thank you @EPA for your action to #ProtectCleanWater #USwaters – Tweet This!

In just 5 years, the US lost about 80,000 acres of coastal wetlands. @EPA proposal can help. http://wapo.st/NsVLLg #USwaters – Tweet This!

Thanks @EPA for taking action to protect drinking water for 117m Americans. #protectcleanwater #USwaters- Tweet This

New @EPAwater rule would protect 2 million miles of streams not clearly covered by #CleanWaterAct. #USWaters pic.twitter.com/gsl3Kcx2t1 – Tweet This!

Thanks for choosing to #Protectcleanwater @EPA, What will you do to protect other #USwaters? Tweet This!

The researcher team includes Dr. Jeffrey Short, a veteran of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who has studied the Exxon Valdez oil spill extensively. That spill is thought to have killed around 300,000 sea birds.

A Coastal Scavenger Hunt

In the months after the Gulf disaster roughly 2,000 visibly oiled sea birds were found. The Gulf Coast is more than 4,000 miles long, and factors such as decomposition, scavenging sharks, wind and currents, and the controlled burns of oil all ensured that many oil-slicked bodies were lost or swept out to sea before they could be counted. For their first model, the team calculated losses based off of these and other factors such as the speed a bird’s carcass might drift.

The second model relies on what we know of the pre-spill population of sea birds. Population size, landing behaviors, and the length of time spent in potentially oiled water were all considered by Dr. Short and his colleagues. The possibility of fatal damage was then multiplied, giving a grim figure that matched up with the first model’s predictions.

Conservative Estimate

While these estimates are staggering, ornithologist Melanie Driscoll of the Audubon Society said “This is a really big number, and it’s still too small.”

Driscoll and others fear the real tally is much higher because the study did not include birds that live in the more than 2,000 miles of marshes affected by the spill or at birds that would have been found further away from the coast. Added together and the science indicates the final tally of dead birds could easily top a million.

A Telling Absence

BP has already criticized this figure and attacked the credibility of the researchers. Yet some birds’ absences from their usual habitats are telling. Dr. Short and his team’s modeling estimates that populations of the laughing gull in the northern gulf would have declined by almost 40%. The Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count—a volunteer population count of birds nationwide— documents a similar decline in laughing gull populations.

It would be far better if BP spent more of its time and energy investing in habitat restoration than claiming the job was finished, or contesting any report that fails to support its narrative.

Speak up for Gulf Wildlife

Four years after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, wildlife in the Gulf are still suffering.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/05/study-estimates-around-800000-birds-killed-during-bp-oil-spill/feed/195515Remembering Exxon Valdezhttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/remembering-exxon-valdez/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/remembering-exxon-valdez/#respondThu, 27 Mar 2014 15:27:22 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=93399Twenty-five years ago, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez crashed into a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Eleven million gallons of oil contaminated over 11,000 square miles of ocean and shoreline. In just the first few days, the death toll was enormous. Around 250 bald eagles, 22 orcas, 300 seals, 3,500 sea otters, countless fish and marine species, and as many as 250,000 seabirds all succumbed to the oil’s effects.

The spill seeped into every facet of the ecosystem, attacking animals from both the inside and out. Though it was initially thought that the oil spill would only have a short term impact on the ecosystem, its effects continue to be felt to this day.

As Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation puts it, “The impacts of oil spills continue long after the TV cameras have gone home. It is still possible to find oil on the shores of Prince William Sound that is nearly as toxic as it was a quarter-century ago.”

All of this raises the question of just how far the oily tide has receded. The recovery effort has produced some decidedly mixed results among some of North America’s most iconic creatures:

1. Pacific Herring

Hallmark of the fishing industry, the herring of Prince William Sound remain badly damaged by the spill. In 1993 the population collapsed, and it has not recovered since. Even the reason for their low numbers remains badly understood, and it’s not certain whether the herring will ever rebound.

2. Killer Whales

Two pods of killer whale call Prince William Sound home. Both were hit hard by Exxon Valdez, and many mature orcas died in the following years. Slow to reproduce under normal circumstances, these losses have been hard to replace. One population that dwells in the Sound through the year has been slowly growing in number. Sadly the other more mobile pod still shows no signs of recovering.

4. Harbor Seals

The harbor seals of Prince William Sound had been struggling with declining prey before Exxon Valdez, but the resident population has since recovered. By 2005 the seal’s numbers were growing again, and the species is considered on the mend.

5. Sea Otters

The most recently recovered species, the numbers and quality of life for sea otters in the Sound finally returned to normal within the past year. In addition to the dangers of swimming through the oil, the sea otters suffered internal damage when they consumed oil tainted clams and other prey. Fortunately oil levels in these species dropped to a “safer” level for the otters.

As for the human race, 25 years on we do not seem to have learned our lessons well. In Galveston Bay, a ship carrying thick, sticky oil collided with another boat and spilled may have spilled as much as 168,000 gallons into the Bay. At the height of the season for migratory birds, the timing could not be worse.

Four years after Deepwater Horizon and 25 years after Exxon Valdez, it is time we commemorate these disasters by taking a step away from oil and other fossil fuels. We need to invest in a cleaner, greener future for energy if we want to ever break this cycle of ecological destruction and cleanup.

Near the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the heart of the five county Albemarle Peninsula, there is a federal wildlife refuge called Alligator River.

With more than 152,000 square acres, the wetland refuge is home to countless species, but one in particular attracts visitors from all over the world—the red wolf. These travelers come a long way for something they are unlikely to even see at all in the wild. Instead on Wednesday nights from June through August visitor services staff will take guests on “howling” tours. Unless there is heavy rain or lightening, visitors will soon hear the howls pierce the night.

Alligator River Refuge and the surrounding peninsula is the only place in the world where the howls can be heard in the wild. The wolves’ presence is the result of decades of conservation work that has restored about 100 red wolves to three national wildlife refuges and the surrounding lands. Unfortunately, this beautiful and unique animal is at risk of being lost forever due to a recent spate of illegal shootings.

More on this in a moment—first, some context is needed.

Recovering from Extinction

That the red wolf is roaming in the wild today is itself a remarkable story. Though the species once ranged from eastern Texas to the Atlantic Coast and north into southern Pennsylvania, by 1970 uncontrolled hunting, habitat loss and predator control programs had removed the red wolf from all but the remotest parts of Texas and Louisiana coast.

After the species was listed as Endangered in 1967, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) initiated a plan to capture as many genetically pure red wolves as possible. Capturing almost 400 animals, a team of researchers carefully removed any coyotes and hybrids, leaving just 14 breeding red wolves. In 1980, FWS declared the species extinct in the wild. The approximately 300 red wolves alive today are all descended from these few individuals.

Under the recovery plan, the first four pairs of red wolves were released in Alligator River National Refuge in 1987. Today the wild population stands at around 100 individuals. As many as 200 more are spread across 44 U.S. captive-breeding facilities. At facilities like Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, education programs are held where guests can learn more about these amazing animals.

Within the 1.7 million acres over which red wolves now roam, these nocturnal predators stand at the top of their food chain, playing a valuable role in keeping numbers of prey, such as deer, raccoons and the invasive nutria in check, thus protecting the habitat of all species living there. Unfortunately, as wolf range has grown, the dangers threatening red wolf survival have become more pronounced.

Not Out of the Woods

While the red wolf’s return to the wild is a conservation triumph, the species’ long-term success requires constant monitoring and support. Two key problems still imperil the red wolf:

Following the red wolf’s extermination in the region, coyotes (native to central North America) moved into much of the red wolf’s former range, including the Albemarle Peninsula. Capable of adapting to human presence, the coyote may compete with red wolves for prey. An even greater threat is the risk of interbreeding between the more numerous coyote and the scarce red wolf

Nor are coyotes the only threat. Human interactions with red wolves often end in tragedy. While the red wolf is a shy creature and unlikely to seek a confrontation, humans pose several risks as our own range continues to expand. Constant development and new suburban housing fragments potential habitat for the wolves, and increases the likelihood of an encounter. Sometimes this can mean automobile accidents, but more recent encounters have a more sinister nature. Poachers have set their sights on this fragile population.

Poachers Target Red Wolves

Within the past few years the number of red wolves shot and killed has spiked upward. Last year, between October 28 and November 19, six red wolves were found shot. Earlier this month FWS staff found another red wolf that had been shot and killed. The radio-tracking collars on the dead wolves had been tampered with, suggesting that whoever killed them was trying to cover up the shooting.

Combined with accidents, the species lost more than 10 percent of its wild population in just one year. This loss of adults, including breeding animals, will likely reduce the production of cubs during the next few years, creating a major obstacle for the red wolf’s long-term survival.

NWF Puts the Target on Poachers

The red wolf is protected by the federal Endangered Species Act, and a poacher who targets any of the remaining animals in the wild not only imperils the decades-long recovery effort but also faces federal criminal and civil charges. The National Wildlife Federation and its state affiliate, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, are committed to ensuring that those responsible for illegal shootings are brought to justice. In addition to supporting outreach and education to help build public support for red wolf conservation, the two federations and their conservation partners are offering a reward for anyone who provides information leading to the arrest and conviction of a red wolf poacher. Taken together, combined pledges of the conservation groups amount to $33,000.

“The National Wildlife Federation, as one of the organizations that helped to bring the red wolf back into the wild in the 1980s, is proud to join the coalition of groups that is working to tackle the latest challenges to its survival and recovery,” said John Kostyack, NWF’s Vice President for Wildlife Conservation. “It is truly a national treasure, and we hope that with the National Wildlife Federation’s pledge, someone with knowledge of these attacks will finally come forward and break the silence.”

Tim Gestwicki, CEO of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, agrees. “Against the longest of odds, the red wolf still roams the wildlands of eastern North Carolina,” he said. “If the wolf is to survive and have even a chance to thrive, it will be because Americans everywhere refuse to stand for the illegal and despicable killing of an endangered species.”

The howl of the red wolf is an ethereal call of the wild, almost unearthly in its beauty. The music of the wolf lingers in the mind and haunts the heart. Those of us who are committed to conservation cannot stand by and let poachers silence the night skies of the Albemarle Peninsula.

If you have information regarding an illegal red wolf kill, contact Wildlife Refuge Officer Frank Simms at 252-216-7504 or North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission Officer Robert Wayne at 252-216-8225. To report an accidental red wolf death, call FWS at 855-496-5837 or the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission at 800-662-7137.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/03/red-wolves-an-endangered-species-in-peril/feed/1893187New Oil Spill Fouls Mississippi Riverhttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/new-oil-spill-fouls-mississippi-river/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/new-oil-spill-fouls-mississippi-river/#respondTue, 25 Feb 2014 13:56:07 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=92214On Sunday, an oil barge travelling down the Mississippi River collided with a tugboat, spilling more than 31,000 gallons. Thankfully no one was hurt, but a 65-mile stretch of the river, and the entire port of New Orleans, had to be closed while crews raced to contain the spill. Wildlife impacts are as yet unknown.

Officials don’t know how much oil spilled, but only a sheen was reported on the river following the collision, which happened Saturday afternoon near Vacherie, 47 miles west of New Orleans by land, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Colclough.

No one was hurt and all barges were secured, Colclough said. The cause of the collision was under investigation.

2013 was a historically awful year for train disasters, with more oil spilled in just one year than in the nearly four decades since the federal government began collecting data on these spills. Yesterday’s accident reminds of us the dangers inherent in oil transportation on our nation’s rivers as well.

On a given day, barges carrying more than 27,000 barrels of crude oil will arrive at refineries that process up to 8-900,000 barrels. That’s up to 30 barges for each refinery, all of them carrying a potentially hazardous substance down our rivers.

Not only does this speak to our need to ensure that our safety measures are as good as they can possibly be, but it points towards the only long term solution. When need to move away from oil and other fossil fuels, we can reduce the number of oil carrying barges that might fall prey to a collision. By treating our addiction to fossil fuels like oil, we can ensure we have a safer, healthier planet in the long term.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/new-oil-spill-fouls-mississippi-river/feed/092214Congress Considering Taking Public Out of Review Process for Water Projectshttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/congress-considering-taking-public-out-of-review-process-for-water-projects/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/congress-considering-taking-public-out-of-review-process-for-water-projects/#commentsFri, 21 Feb 2014 20:00:55 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=92156More than 40 years ago, America began to lay the groundwork for one of the pieces of environmental legislation we rely on today. It was born in part out of an era of big projects by the federal government. Interstates had begun to link the country, cutting a swath through some communities and sensitive ecosystems with little thought to potential environmental consequences.

The resulting National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was designed not to halt new federal construction, but to ensure that their impacts on the environment were known and understood beforehand and that every federal project was in the public interest.

How a Law Helped Prevent Reckless Ideas From Becoming Reality

The presence of NEPA has helped encourage smarter, less reckless construction, and has helped preserve the habitats of animals like the Florida panther. By guaranteeing public participation, NEPA has given millions of Americans the opportunity to engage in the federal decision making process.

The law requires agencies like the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a careful review of what their projects will mean for nearby waters and wildlife, helping prevent bad ideas from becoming a reality.

The National Environmental Policy Act is our chance to see the consequences of federal action laid out before us, and gives the public and government a chance to decide whether we want to proceed.

If It Ain’t Broke…

This notion of a scientific review has served us well for 40 years now, which is why the attack it faces today is so worrying. Currently the House and Senate are in conference, trying to decide what the final version of the Water Resources and Development Act is going to look like.

In the name of “streamlining” the environmental review process, the Water Resources Development Act would require agencies to speed through their critical project reviews. This hard cap on the time spent in review applies to all projects, regardless of size.

The hope is that a faster environmental review process would speed up the construction of Army Corps projects. Leaving aside the danger of hurrying along an already terrible project, the National Environmental Policy Act is hardly a roadblock for these projects.

Over 1,100 authorized projects—a backlog of $60-$80 billion—are on the table, just waiting for the funding they need to break ground. WRDA does nothing to address the root problem of this backlog and simply piles more onto the Army Corps.

It’s Time to Act

Fortunately, it’s not too late to change course. As the conferees continue to conduct their own thorough review of the Water Resources Development Act, we have a chance to make our voices heard. Reach out to these Members of Congress and let them know that environmental reviews should be left alone!

Contact these members of Congress and tell them: don’t cut the public out of the review process!

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/congress-considering-taking-public-out-of-review-process-for-water-projects/feed/192156Penguin Chicks are Dying in a Changing Climatehttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/penguin-chicks-are-dying-in-a-changing-climate/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/penguin-chicks-are-dying-in-a-changing-climate/#respondMon, 03 Feb 2014 20:27:22 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=91487The life of a Magellanic penguin is hardly idyllic. They contend with predators like sea lions, declining food sources due to overfishing and the constant threat of oil spills in their South American habitat. But now, they are facing a threat that could spell the end for their species – climate change. The changing climate means more rainstorms and abnormal heat waves, both of which have tragic consequences for young penguin chicks. The rains stick to their underdeveloped feathers, a clinging chill that causes the penguins to sicken and die.

“Too big for parents to sit over protectively, but still too young to have grown waterproof feathers, downy penguin chicks exposed to drenching rain can struggle and die of hypothermia in spite of the best efforts of their concerned parents,” researchers said in a statement. “And during extreme heat, chicks without waterproofing can’t take a dip in cooling waters as adults can.”

Given that two thirds of penguin chicks can die during a normal season, any additional losses are catastrophic. Magellanic penguins aren’t classified as endangered just yet, but if more rain storms and heat waves hit after hatching season the population will see a sharp decline.

A Global Crisis

From the birds in the Arctic, to penguins on the southern tip of Argentina, to migratory birds that live right here in the United States, climate change poses a threat to avian species everywhere. It’s just a range of examples that highlights the global nature of this challenge. We should try to protect the Magellanic penguin from pollution and the problems of overfishing, but unless we take steps to confront climate change these penguin chicks will continue to suffer.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the decline of our own carbon emissions, and what he would do to ensure that trend continues. You can take action to join in this battle against climate change.

]]>http://blog.nwf.org/2014/02/penguin-chicks-are-dying-in-a-changing-climate/feed/091487Arctic Birds Suffering in A Changing Climatehttp://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/arctic-birds-suffering-in-a-changing-climate/
http://blog.nwf.org/2014/01/arctic-birds-suffering-in-a-changing-climate/#respondTue, 28 Jan 2014 01:23:12 +0000http://blog.nwf.org/?p=91020North in the Arctic, there is a mystery unfolding. Populations of birds have entered into a sharp and rapid decline, leaving scientists scrambling to understand just what is happening. As Ed Struzik for Yale’s Environment 360 reports, both the birds and the species they prey on are suffering.

American kestrel photo taken by Barbara Fleming, from the National Wildlife Photo Contest.

“There’s no doubt that something is happening,” says Dave Mossop, a biologist at Yukon College who has been studying birds in the Yukon for more than 40 years. “Kestrels here are declining so fast, it’s scary. As many as 60 percent of the adult peregrines we have in the Yukon haven’t even bothered nesting in recent years. Our gyrfalcons are breeding much later, seem to be producing fewer young, and are declining in abundance.”

There is one likely culprit, climate change. Surviving in a harsh landscape like the Arctic requires a careful strategy, one that can be thrown wildly out of alignment by shifts in temperature.

In the case of the Arctic, warmer temperatures can mean more mosquitoes harassing some species, or longer rain seasons that have literally drowned some peregrine chicks in their nests.

NWF’s senior scientist Doug Inkley voiced his concern as well. “This report of widespread bird declines in areas where climate change is at its most extreme doesn’t bode well for the future of these birds adapted to Arctic ecosystems.” As our own report on migratory birds found, it is a crisis birds across the nation are facing.

If we can ever hope to reverse this decline, and to help preserve the homes of these birds in places like the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, we need to take action now. As the tendrils of climate change reach even the most remote natural areas on the planet, we need to redouble our efforts to move away from carbon fuels and cut our emissions.

On January 22nd eight short-finned pilot whales died near Fort Myers, Florida and another six whales are unaccounted for. Pilot whales are normally deepwater creatures, and can become easily stranded in shallow coastal waters. Unable to escape and lacking the cushioning support of water, the whale’s body starts to collapse under its own weight, or they can even drown if their blowholes are covered by high tide. Many stranded whales have to be euthanized.

Florida has seen a large number of pilot whale strandings recently. Earlier this month a group of two dozen whales were found swimming dangerously close to shore near Naples, but officials were able to lead the whales back out to deeper waters. In December, a group of 51 whales weren’t so lucky. At least 22 whales died off the coast of the Everglades National Park.

The Family that Swims Together

Strandings are far from uncommon among whales, and pilots are particularly prone to it. As social creatures, pilot whales move in pods that can be anywhere from usual groups of 10–30 to as many as a hundred. In times of distress pilot whales can emit a special call to bring the other members of their pod for aid. It’s this close social bond that scientists think leads to some mass strandings. If one pilot whale gets sick or confused, the entire pod may follow them. In the Everglades stranding in December, the rest of the pod swam as close as they could to their beached members and simply refused to leave the other whales behind. Other underwater signals such as dolphins or human noise pollution like sonar can confuse whale pods and lead them astray as well.

Something in the Water?

There is much we do not know about short-finned pilot whales—the International Union for Conservation of Nature currently lists the species as “data deficient.” The recent rash of strandings have some asking if the Gulf oil disaster could be affecting pilot whales. The short answer: we don’t know. The Deepwater Horizon rig was located in deepwater off the continental shelf, where pilot whales tend to congregate, so it is likely that some of the Gulf’s estimated population of 2,000 pilot whales were exposed to oil.

How to Help Stranded Whales

As heartbreaking as it is to find a stranded whale, there is a way to help. If you ever see a stranded whale, contact the Mammal Stranding network immediately. There’s even an app for it. Quick reporting can perhaps help prevent another pod from beaching in a vain attempt to help their friends.